#1

Bit of a @hip_young_gunslinger of a topic this one.

It’s one of those things where I am genuinely unsure how to parse, really. I mean I agree that news outlets are struggling and it’s a shame (and I think there’s been a huge run of unemployment in journalism recently which doesn’t help) but equally it’s so rare I don’t read stuff that seems to be written at best by Blairites and at worst by Murdoch hell. And presumably it’ll be Murdoch’s group or similar who’ll be getting the greatest amount of this money (and probably still having to downsize later due to costs or something) if it even happens.

Google have been running these little pop-ups saying, “HEY MAN, YOUR SEARCH RESULTS ARE UNDER THREAT,” and now Facebook is going in hard

I mean I don’t know enough about this

We had also hoped to bring Facebook News to Australia, a feature on our platform exclusively for news, where we pay publishers for their content. Since it launched last year in the US, publishers we partner with have seen the benefit of additional traffic and new audiences.

to know if it’s pure bullshit or marginally improves on what the Australian government proposes (and I guess it wouldn’t affect Google in any case).

So I guess at some point soon if this goes through I won’t be able to post news stories on FB or even find them on Google :crazy_face:

#2

Powderfinger. Those Aussies…

#3

New Powderfinger album got announced didn’t it. Big news.

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#4

Google are gonna the bat and bowl and piss off

#5

It’s fun to see their business strategy writ so large:

Censorship in China to make money? Fiiiiiiiiine
Pay for news content? Noooo, dangerous precedent!

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#6

So friggin condescending as well - ‘let me put it this way, what if you need to know about a coffee shop…’

Get to fuck

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#7

And yet… giving more money to Rupert Murdoch. :grimacing:

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#8

I mean sure but if this was a moral decision then that’s something else

#9

Everything is a moral decision Theo.

#10

Finally watched their video you were mentioning @PaintyCanNed - proper “we’re not evil, honest” energy

It is really weird they go down the patronising route of stupid comparisons. It doesn’t make you think their option is that great because they don’t really talk about what it is.

There’s a Kevin Rudd video that links at the end where he’s much less polished but a lot more reasonable attacking Murdoch.

Although it sounds like he opens it with “K-Rudd here” which is a paddlin’.

#11

So Facebook are not playing ball at all - so many sites gone dark today

“Facebook will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content”

bit harsh counting bureau of meteorology in that - their page posts are gone

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#12

That is really fucked isn’t it? BOM is free surely and not covered by this. Like make your point but maybe don’t take it to this level.

What about Government stuff? Just checked and that seems to be there.

#13

This seems a good article about it

Facebook chose to do it before it was necessary, presumably as a negotiating tactic with both the government and publishers.

Facebook chose to do it during a pandemic, days before a crucial vaccine rollout, on a day where Australians are threatened by rain and fire danger.

Facebook chose to enforce this slapdash decision using a “a combination of technologies“, meaning that non-news pages have been restricted including the Bureau of Meteorology, health authorities, domestic abuse services, charities, politicians small publishers note included by the code.

#14

I’m kind of surprised that people are surprised by this, although I don’t have strong feelings either way (Facebook is evil, most big media orgs are owned by billionaires). The effect on non-news organisations that are being cut off is perhaps more troubling, but if it leads to more people abandoning facebook, then great!

I appreciate I’m definitely a minority voice however as I don’t use facebook or google, and all my traffic is routed through a VPN so my browsing isn’t ‘Australian’ anyway.

#15

I think people are surprised they’d do it so badly. I mean pulling in so much content that isn’t remotely regulated by the new code. As my sister-in-law says:

various community service orgs, and even my friend J- who works for the Stella Prize for women’s literature - they’ve been blocked!

That’s cutting into themselves in a way that feels like it could easily backfire.

#16

Yep the Australian Unions page was also removed.

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#17

They’ve now said the BOM site and a few others were accidentally blocked , and are now restored

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#18

No income tax, no BBC

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#19

Facebook has climbed down supposedly